'Citizen' in the Bible

Paul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia (Mersin Province, Turkey), a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”

But when they had stretched him out with the leather straps [in preparation for the whip], Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to whip a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned [without a trial]?”

When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and said to him, “What are you about to do? This man is a Roman!”

So the commander came and asked Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.”

So those who were about to interrogate him by torture immediately let him go; and the commander was also afraid when he realized that Paul was a Roman and he had put him in chains.

Then Paul, looking intently at the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court), said, “Kinsmen, I have lived my life before God with a perfectly good conscience until this very day.”

This man was seized [as a prisoner] by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, when I came upon him with the troops and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.

“And it will not be [necessary] for each one to teach his fellow citizen,Or each one his brother, saying, ‘Know [by experience, have knowledge of] the Lord,’For all will know [Me by experience and have knowledge of] Me,From the least to the greatest of them.